Hockey stick blades have traditionally been made using a core to which is glued a hosel, both made of a material such as wood, ABS or polyurethane foam. The core and hosel are then covered by a layer of fleece or fiberglass over which reinforcement panels are fixed using a lamination process. The purpose of the fleece or fiberglass layer is to fill in any space present between the core, the hosel and the reinforcement panels. As part of the laminating process, the blade assembly is pressed to obtain the desired curve. This construction, however, has some drawbacks. One of them is that the fleece layer itself does not improve any substantial mechanical properties of the blade. When a fiberglass layer is used, the problem is that the spacing between the fibers is always very small and the angle between the fibers is fixed. The fiberglass layer material comes in rolls and is thus limited in terms of possible densities and geometries.
Another known construction included the addition of a twilled or plain weaved fiber envelope with a fiberglass layer over a laminated blade assembly in order to improve its mechanical properties. However, the disadvantages of such a construction is the usual presence of wrinkles in the fiber envelope, which lessens its potential added mechanical properties. These wrinkles are caused by the fiber envelope being applied to a blade having an already formed curve combined with the fact that the blade cannot be pressed a second time. A further disadvantage is that the fiber envelope is on the exterior surface of the blade and is exposed to impacts.
Also existing is a construction where dry reinforcement panels are added to the core and hosel, the blade curvature being formed through a resin transfer molding process or vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process. The disadvantages of such a construction is that it requires complex and expensive processes in order to obtain a consistent surface finish. Furthermore, a different mold is required for every blade profile and curvature, which is expensive and means that the blade profile and curvature must be known before starting the process. The cool down period required after the completion of the process is another disadvantage.